House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas on March 3, 2020
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Romance
Pages: 803
Format: Paperback
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Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths. Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach. As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.
I forgot how much I loved Maas’s worlds. To be frank with you, this sagacious mammoth of a book is more like an entire series, taking you through a journey so long and eventually satisfying with so much character development that one might say it is too long. And perhaps I first agreed until I realized that I wouldn’t give up a single syllable and lose the characters and world. Yes, it’s very slow for the first half but, when slow is interesting, it ends up paying off even better than fast paced as all those tied up threads snap in the longest, most exquisite climax to have graced my book shelves.
Five incredible stars for this book because this book was absolutely fucking incredible. Going in I knew it was going to be a favorite, but I didn’t realize it was going to be this powerful. This is very possibly Sarah J. Maas’ best book ever, which is saying something. If this is just the first book in the series, then holy shit are we in for a ride with the rest of Crescent City.